
vd; 



7 



(p. fYf^f. 



READMISSION OF THE REBELLIOUS STATES AND THE MEMBERS THEREOF. 



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V^^at-E^s-^*-^' 



SPEECH 






HON. E. PUMONT, OF INDIANA, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 17, 186G. 



The House, as in Committee of the AVhole on the 
Ftate of the Union, having under consideration the 
President's annual message — 
Mr. DUMONTsaid: 

Mr. Speaker: As many suppose that the 
powers of Congress to deal with the rebel 
States according to their demerits, and the 
deeds done in the body depend upon the 
question whether a State can go out of the 
Union or forfeit by crime the rights apper- 
taining to a loyal State, I propose at the begin- 
ning of my remarks to occupy a brief period 
with these inquiries. It is quite clear that 
South Carolina, for example, since her rebel- 
lion has not been in the Union in the sense 
that Indiana is in the Union, or out of the 
Union in the sense that Yucatan or Ecuador is. 
Whether her condition has been and is terri- 
torial, colonial, provincial, or what not, is im- 
material, provided any of these conditions would 
place her under the jurisdiction and control of 
Congress until again invested with the rights 
she has forfeited. Wiien so reinstated. Con- 
gress of course has no powel'S except such as 
she has over loyal States under the Constitu- 
tion. 

Under the Con.stitution powers not delegated 
to the Government are reserved to the States, 
and that is why a hostile and rebellious State 
has no business to participate in the Govern- 
ment of the Union. As well might we confide 
our blessed religion and the sacred Book upon 
which it is founded, the Christian's guide and 
compass, bulwark and hope, to the keeping of 
a set of shameless and blatant infidels. We do 
not confide the lamb to the wolf. I have heard 
the question asked: is not a State and a State 
organization one and the same thing as truly 
as man's body and his physical organization are 
one and the same, so that the State organiza- 
tion being destroyed the. State itself is destroyed? 
Those wlio entertain this theory call it being 
out of the Union, though the territory of the 
State and the people are still subject to the 
jurisdiction of the Federal Government. 

When the principles of life depart we say the 
man is dead, and when dead we say he has 
gone to another world, though the body is still 
present with us ; and why may we not say of 
a State, when its government has been over- 
thrown, its living principles subverted, gone to 



flinders and broken to fragments, that it is out 
of the Union"? We may not say it, we are told, 
because the soil of the State is still here, the 
people are still here, and the two constitute the 
State. Might it not as well be said that the 
man has not gone to another world because 
his body is still here and he has left his farm 
and his children behind him'.' Who can name 
the author that has laid down the doctrine of 
the perpetuity of a State like that of the im- 
mortality of the soul ■? Does not the history of 
the world prove such a doctrine is false'/ Do 
not the experience of man and all that has 
been said and written teach a different lesson'? 

" The cloud-capped towers, the gorfrcous palaces. 
The solemn temples, the great plobe itself. 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. 
Leave not a wreck behind." 

"The grass withers and the flowers fade, the 
word of our God alone endureth forever. ' ' The 
republic of to-day is the despotism of to-mor- 
row. The pages of history are rife with the 
rise, decline, and fall of States and empires, 
fabrics which have crumbled before the cor- 
roding tooth of time. The formation of a State 
is of man ; all that is of man is perishable. 
Within my short recollection one oi the rebel 
States has passed through various mutations. 
It was first one of the States of the republic 
of Mexico, then by a successful revolution it 
became itself an independent republic; then 
by treaty of annexation it became one of the 
United States of America ; and running its ped- 
igree back and tracing its lineage the other way, 
in the ascending line, we find it was once a part 
of Spain ; and before the Spanish conquest, 
and in tlie djiys of the Montezumas, a part, per- 
haps, of the Aztec republic. I think it l)clonged 
once to France and was part of Louisiana, pur- 
chased by the United States with tliat territory 
and again traded off to Spain, and what it is 
now God only knows. I once saw a couplet, 
supposed to be written by an emigrant totlioso 
parts : 

"When every other land rejects us. 
We pack our kit and go to Texas. 

I presume if tlie author of this piece of sub- 
limity has not been hung, or met some such 
untimely fate, he might be able to solve the 
question. I think, in the case of Texas at least, 



^^^''^ 90 



ETUS 



^ 



we must hold that a State cannot go out. at 
least cannot go out for good, and bid us a final 
and everlasting farewell, though it may be au- 
dacious enough to go a whoring after strange 
gods for a time. We cannot afl'ord to lose 
Texas ; it cost too much money. It cost us 
$10.UUO,000 at the beginning, not counting the 
cost of the Mexican war nor the money and 
blood expended in whipping her out of her 
recent rebellion. They are a jolly set of boys 
down in I'exas; at least they were a few years 
ago, when I was among them on a temporary 
visit. To illustrate: 1 was at a hotel in the 
town of Gonzales ; I think it was in the year of 
grace, that is, A. D. 18G0. It was at a time 
when wonderful tales were told in regard to 
Indian barbarities. While there a well-dressed 
and good-looking gentleman, who was called 
captain, cameinandsaid that twenty white fam- 
ilies, men, women, and children. hadl)cen mur- 
dered, a day or two before, at a point some forty 
or fifty miles distant, by the Camanche Indians, 
and that he was raising a company of brave and 
determined men to go in pursuit. There was 
at the time quite a crowd in the room to whom 
he related what I have repeated. 

" Now," says one of the group, using a good 
deal of profanity that I will not repeat, lest it 
should grate harshly on ears polite, "you don't 
come that giralfe over this crowd. Don't we 
know what you' re after? It's plunder, horses, 
anything that you can steal and confiscate. I 
think we'll all join your company and go 
snooks; yes, we're all in, every last one of us. 
To the victors l)elong the spiles. We'll name 
our company ' the Forty Thieves.' I think 1 see 
us all a comin back to the white settlements, 
every feller a Icadin of a boss and breaking 
down with plunder, but nary Injun scalp. John 
A. Murrill, that old thief and counterfeiter, is 
dead. He used to kidnap niggers; and now 
the devil has kidnapped him. If he had not 
gone up the spout, he should be our chaplain ; 
we'll be mighty apt to need praying for afore 
we get back. We must hunt up a chaplain ; a 
company of brave and determined men witliout 
one might become demoralized." At this point 
the laugh came in, in which the whole crowd, 
the captain included, participated ; but I no- 
ticed that he was stung, that tlie arrow had 
sped to its oljject, that he at least did not rel- 
isli the joke ; but I heard no more of the e.x- 

fyedilioii. The massacre was of course all a 
iibriralion — all a humbug; the Indian.? had 
killed ri<jbo(iy. 

1 thought this a good piece of badinage, bat- 
ing the profanity and levity. It broki; up an 
expediti(»n that had, I a[iprehcnd, but little 
relish of salvation in it, and I was tht-ri'fore 
inclined to make some allowance for the hard 
words. UneleToby, you recollect, Mr, .'Speaker, 
Bwore too, and yet we are told by the pious 
and ••xcniplary Sti'rne that becauscr it was in 
a good cauHc and with good intentions, on u fit 
OccaBiuii, and under Kufticient provocation, that 
the accusing sfiiril that flew up to heuven'K 
chancery with the oath blushed an he gave it 



in ; and that the recording angel, as he wrote 
it down, dropped a tear upon the word and 
blotted it out forever. 

We must hold on to Texas, I think, Mr. 
Speaker. They were, at the time of Avhich I 
speak, a set of free and easy, gay and festive 
boys, I confess; still, I kind o' liked them, and 
think that under the benign and chastening 
influences of free institutions, free schools, free ^ 
Bibles, and freedom, they will be good and use- ^r 
ful citizens after awhile. We must, by all means, 
hold on to tliemin a kind of probationary state 
Tor a time, and take them in as full members 
when the signs in the zodiac are right. 

It is a poor plan, Mr. Speaker, to digress 
from an argument to tell a story. It breaks 
the thread of a discourse. I have almost for- 
gotten at what point of my argument I stepp^ 
aside for that foolish purpose. I believe I was 
talking about .States going out, and saying that 
some say it can be done, some that it cannot, 
while still others say that while we are not 
compelled to treat a rebel State as out of the 
Union, yet we are at liberty to do so by the 
right of conquest if we see proper, keep them 
out as long as we please, and readmit them as 
soon as we please. On these various jioints I 
heard an argument the other day between gen- ^M 
tlemen of conflicting political tenets, and as it 
lets in a little daylight on the subject I will 
repeat it. It ran thus : says one, " The South 
said they had gone out. You said they had 
not and could not, and now you say they did, 
and cannot come in." The other replied, 
"You said that war was disunion. The war 
came, the most terrible and bloody on record. 
You passed ordinances of .secession, struck 
down the flag, trampled it under foot, and now 
you say there has been no disunion. \\ e did 
not say you could not go out — that would have 
been foolish — we said you coald^iot legally go 
out ; nor do we say you cannot come baik, but 
we do say that as you went out contrary to law, 
in violation of your allegiance, and for the most 
wicked jjurposes, stamping the dust from your 
feet as you left, and have put the I'luon to the 
painful necessity tif whipping treason out of you, A 
you cannot come in until you are in\itcd, and 
you will not be invited until Congress is satis- 
lied that the hostility that proinjited you to the 
deed of wiekcMlness has been eradicated. The 
Union will not trifle about the thing. Going 
out and coming in costs too much. I f wc keep 
you out in the cohl awhile it may teach you 
sense enougli to stay in when you get in, and 
conduct yourselves decently and civillv when 
in." 

Mr. Speaker, many suppose this question so 
profound that it is somewhat presumptuous for 
the .-jmall fry to pitch in. 1 ]tropos(> to live 
up to my |>rivilege9. I have heard otir minis- 
ter say that is what all good ('hristiaiis ought to 
do, and if so, it will not hurt a sinner. It may 
be that the quostion is deeper than plummet 
ever Bonndeii. Init I do not believe it. It does 
not seem so to mo. 

Yet I may be in the condition of the lunatic. 



*Tiay be the one who is laboring under the de- 
lusion and not those who regard the subject as 
jS so profound. And for aught I know they may 
111 have the majority on me. " What are you doing 
^ here?" said a visitor to a hmatlc. ''I thought," 
replied he. "everybody mad ; evcrj'body thought 
me mad ; they had the majority on me, and here 
I am confined in a mad-hou.'5e." 

It seems to.me that disunion is to be disuni- 
ft^ ted; the ligaments that bind together broken, 
andlamnot prepu'cd tosay that in point of fact 
it may not be d"ne, though it be contrary to 
law. Let us not confound the right with the 
fact, and conclude that because a man has not 
the right to do a thing he cannot in fitct do it. 
Would to God it were so ; crime would be wiped 
out and our wicked and sinful world would be- 
come a paradise. But we know it is not so ; 
-.-that the legal prohibition does not always pre- 
vent the crime. Keej') these ideas, the right 
and the fact, separate and there is no confu- 
sion. Nor does it follow that because a lig- 
ament maybe broken it cannot be mended; 
because it may be cut asunder it cannot be re- 
united. It may be mended, and I hold it the 
duty of Congress to hasten slowly and unite 
the dissevered ties — to do it as soon as it may 
be done with prudence and safety — but I want 
*^ no rush or indecent haste in the matter. 

" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 

It is easy to manifest more mock magna- 
nimity than wisdom ; to exhibit more courage 
than conduct. Prudence is sometimes the bet- 
ter part of valor. It is of prime im)')ortance 
that what we do in the premises may be dene 
in such way that it will stand the test of time, 
redound to the welfare and happiness of man, 
the perpetuity of our blessed Union, and the 
glory of God. 

But I am not quite through with this knotty 
point about which I have been talking. I do 
not want to run it into the ground, but would 
pursue it yet a little further. It is certainly 
geographically true that >South Carolina, after 
she went out of the Union, so to speak, was pre- 
cisely where she was before she went out ; and 
M after she came back into the Union, was pre- 
cisely where she was before she came back. 
She is where she always was : that is to say, 
when she went out of the Union she did not 
pick herself up bodyaceously, walk off, and lo- 
cate in some distant part of the earth or in some 
other hemisphere. 

In seeking for South Carolina at any time, 
during the war or since, you would iind her 
located just where she was before the war, be 
tween the very same parallels of latitude and 
longitude. The soil of South Carolina was 
within the exterior lines of the Union before 
the war, and as there has been no land-slide 
down in that region, and as a State cannot pick 
itself up and walk off like a land terrapin, nor 
be located like a land-warrant on the best va- 
cant land that can be found, I presume South 
Carolina is .still within the limits of the Union, 
and has never been out. la this respect, then, 



it is certainly true that a State cannot go out 
of the Union. It is also manifestly true that a 
State cannot go out of the Union in such way 
as to release herself from her duties and obli- 
gations. There is no such thing as legal s^^ces- 
sion any more than there is such a tiling as legal 
I larceny or pious villainy. An individual may 
forfeit the 'rights belonging to an honest man 
by crime, but 1 apprehend he cannot sanctify 
crime by committing it, release himself from 
his duties and obligations, nor discharge himself 
from liability to punishment ; and so a State 
may by rebellion forfeit the rights appertaining 
to a loyal State, but cannot by crime release 
herself at her own option from' her duties and 
obligations, nor avoid the penalties that follow 
the footsteps of the tran.=;gressor. The rule that 
the way of the transgressor is hard is God's 
law of the universe, as inexorable as the de- 
crees of fate, and as steadfast as the everlasting 
hills. It applies to States and individuals. 
None is above or below it. It is, I repeat, 
strictly true that a State cannot go out of the 
Union in such way as to release herself from 
her duties and obligations, provided the Gov- 
ernment sees proper to enforce them. It is the 
rights of the Government that remain unim- 
paired, not the rights of the rebelling States ; 
their rights are not rights at all ; only such 
privileges as the conqueror may see proper to 
accord as a boon. 

Before these States rebelled they were apart 
of the Government, but the moment they rai.se 
their parricidal hand against it they of course 
cease to be any part of it. It is absurd to say 
that a Government mil or can resist itself and 
be its own antagonist. A .State must keep step 
to the music of the Union, or it is, as Mr. Lin- 
coln said, "out of practical relations to the 
Union," and in a governing sense no part of 
the Union. The hand that is raised against it 
is alien to it. The elements of a Government 
must be in harmony, but antagonisms do not 
harmonize. In a Government of the people the 
State that would ruin, destroy, and pull down 
the rest, and is guilty of the attempt, ceases 
ipso fudo with the hostile act to be any part 
of the governing element. It may have been 
one of the sovereigns, but is, when it lifts a 
hostile hand, but a malefactor. 

If it is not so, we surely have ^'ithin our- 
selves the seeds of dissolution ; if it is not so, 
the Union is already gone, the death-rattle 
already in her throat. It will not be long be- 
fore a Government hostile to itself, composed 
of antagonisms, becomes a felo de se. A des- 
]iotisin would be a better government, for a 
despotism is a unit, and is not guilty of self- 
destruction. And when, pray, does a State 
whose power has thus departed again become 
part of the Government ? As .soon as she 
ceases to strike, or at such time thereafter as 
the parent Government may deem it safe to 
permit? Not as soon as she ceases to strike, 
for she may still be hostile; not at her own 
option, for she may desire to become again 
part of the Government iu order to destroy it, 



CQ fyf4- 



to accomplish by insidious and stealthy means 
what she failed to accomplish by arms. I think 
the only answer is, "At such time as the Gov- 
ernment deems it safe to permit, and by legis- 
lation so declare," and not. before. Any other 
conclusion would lead to the absurdity that a 
State may fight the Federal Government to-day, 
be a part of the Federal Government to-mor- 
row, and allied and consorting with its ene- 
mies, striking at its vitals, and doing all in its 
power to overturn and subvert it the next day. 

What name but anarchy, rampant and fla- 
grant anarchy, over which the fallen spirits 
and incarnate devils might hold a jubilee, 
would j-ou give to such a state of affairs as 
this? A little hell in the family all the time! 
Oh, what a glorious Government that would be ! 
Freedom's soil beneath our feet! And free- 
dom's banner streaming oer us! The home 
of the free, and the hope of the brave! 

Mexico, poor, distracted, \infortunate Mex- 
ico, might gaze upon us and consider herself 
in a happy condition I But this is a digression. 
It is plain to my mind that there >s not as much 
real as seeming difference between those who 
assert that a .State cannot go out of the Union 
and those who contend that a State can. 

Who will dare question the power of Congress 
to inquire before admitting the rebel States into 
Congress whether they are proper custodians 
of the civil rights of the people, and lit to be 
trusted as part of the governing power of the 
country — not only fit to, govern themselves, 
but to help govern the rest of the nation ; 
whether communities yet turbulent, yet wedded 
to inequality and wrong, injustice and oppres- 
sion, sliall be admitted to equal participation 
on the floors of Congress, or kept in a state of 
prol)atiun, for the benefit of their education, 
until they are. in some degree at least, toned 
down and mollified? i 

If their object in getting into Congress is not 
to preserve and perpetuate the Union, but to 
disrupt and destroy it, to play into the hands 
of some hostile Power, is it not the duty of Con- 
gre.-s to ki-ep them out? Would they in that 
case be fit to help us govern the nation and rule 
till' land? Would it not be confiding (he lamb 
to the tender mercies of the wolf? Wcare told 
that when the wicked rule the nations mourn. 
How long wHlu Government stand ruled by those 
hoiStile to its principles, and who would rejoice 
to see it subverted? Do we intrust the navi- 
gution of a shi]) to those who W(Mild gladly 
e.vciti? the crew t(jinuti?iyor scuttle thevessel? ; 
And if it is not cirtuinly known wiiether that is 1 
tlicir dispositiun or not, is it not wise to wait ' 
and fioe? We know that such were at one lime , 
tlieirfeeling.'i. Let us be sure they are not still i 
before we give thom the helm. Jt is said that 
they have laid down their arms, subuiitlcd to ' 
tli<- (Jovernm«nt, and relying alone upon their i 
prayers and lli('ir tiars, now humbly and jtriii- 
tcnily beg to lie pcrniiltfd to nsuine their alle- , 
giance, come back into the L'liion, and be good 
oiti/'Ons. 

That is uuu way of otatiug it, but let it Lu 



borne in mind and never forgotten, that in a 
Government like ours a State in the Union is 
part of the ruling and governing principle. 
When that is kept in mind it will appear that 
the request is not so humble after all ; that it is 
a demand to come in and help us rule and gov- 
ern the nation, to come in and aid in making 
the laws ; to come and take their seats on the 
supreme bench and participate in expounding 
the laws they hate and detest ; to go into the 
Cabinet and aid in executing the laws that they 
but yesterday set at defiance and trampled un- 
der foot : to help us safely keep our treasure, 
which they would be glad to see applied to the 
payment of the confederate debt or sunk in the 
bottom of the ocean; to help possess our forts, 
dock-yards, and arsenals, and navigate our 
Navy, all of which they would be glad to see 
enveloped in flames and reduced to ashes ; and 
above all help command our Army that has so 
recently given them such a terrible flogging ; 
in short, to be clothed with all the privileges 
and powers they lost by their rebellion. There 
is not, I tell you. so much sackcloth and ashes 
about this thing, nor as great a flood of pen- 
itential tears as might at first blush appear. 
Admitting them back into the Union, it is plain, 
is conferring upon them power, putting weap- 
ons, and deadly weapons at that, into their 
hands, and they know it. 

Why not gratify them at once? At what 
more auspicious time could they be reinstated 
on the supreme bench than when their leader 
is being tried, or ought to be tried, for treason, 
the validity of confiscation laws adjudicated, 
the new condition of our freedmen settled, and 
prize cases under the blockade determined? 
A rogue feels secure when the judge who tries 
him is one of his gang and a good share of the 
jury his accomplices. Would it not be a nice 
thing just at this time to dilute, adulterate, and 
debauch our Supreme Court by such an acces- 
sion ; and above all, would it not be perfectly 
charming to invite these people to send their 
Senators and Representatives to Congress to 
unite with their northern allies in involving us 
in a foreign war, in repudiating the national 
debt, or addin" the confederate debt to it, in 
repealing the laws granting pensions to our 
living di.saliled soldiers, and to the widows and 
orphan children of those who are dead, and 
perchance to insert the names of their own 
traitors on our pension rolls, and tax our peo- 
ple to jiay them ? 

How long had Pcirpoint inhaled the atmos- 
phere of Kiclunond before he had the assurance 
to come to Washington and declare in profane 
and indecent language that the South would 
never consent to be tu.xed to aid in the ]iayuieDt 
of the national debt? 1 would not do him in- 
justice, but such is the report. If Mr. Clarke, 
our able Comptroller of the Currency, could 
with (lillicully silence his clamor, may \ve not 
expect to hear a great deal of that kind of tjilk 
when the Senate and House are full of recon- 
structed rel)els and their northern allies? Do 
we want to make such sluug potential and give 



U V 






rvj 



it vitality and power so that it may bud and 
blossom and ripen into legislation, so that our 
victories may prove like Billy's cake, which was 
sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly? I do 
not, I freely confess, and I shall vote against 
it until I am satisfied that the apprehended 
dangers have passed away or been provided 
against by adequate guarantees. 

It is said that we must not be too distrustful, 
^ that a word of a sort is enough among gentle- 
W men; that we must take these folks at their 
word, must take their promises to be faithful 
to the Union without any other guarantees. It 
seems to me to be too slender a reliance. What 
if they break their promises? Who will be in 
danger then? It is easy to leap into a pit, but 
to get out, there's the rub. 

"In this the task, the mighty labor lies." 

There is a bear story that touches remotely 
on the folly of incurring too much risk. The 
story is nothing, but the lesson it teaches is 
good. This is the story : two American citi- 
zens of African descent, named Cato and 
Sambo, started on a bear hunt. They got upon 
the trail of a bear and followed her back track 
until they saw that she had emerged from the 
trunk of a hollow and prostrate tree. They con- 
W eluded at once that her cubs were probably in the 
tree, and it was agreed that Cato should go in 
and bring them out, that Sambo should stand 
sentinel to keep the old bear at bay in case she 
made her appearance, ^'cry soon after Cato 
had gone in the old bear did come, and outflank- 
ing the sentinel darted into the hole. SamI)o 
seeing there was mischief ahead unless some- 
thing was done quickly, seized her by the tail 
witli a terrible grip, and braced himself back 
at an angle of forty-five degrees. Cato, ap- 
prehensive that something was wrong, but not 
knowing what, called out, '' Hello, Saml)o! 
What darky de hole?" I call attention to the 
sublime reply given by this unlettered African, 
this dark-skinned child of a downtrodden race. 
Words are powerless to express the thing bet- 
ter: " If tail holt break, Cato, you'll damn 
soon find out what darky de hole." 
'^ I leave the lesson taught by this story to those 

"^ who have wit enough to divine it. 

What harm can the rebel States do, provided 
their people are still hostile to the Union, if 
*"" they should now be released from all restraint 
and taken back into.full fellowship? What con- 
trol have we of them now that would in that 
case be lost? What conditions-precedent can 
we now demand and exact that we could not 
then? What securities and guarantees is it 
now in our power to obtain that would in that 
case be beyond our reach? Under the Con- 
stitution all powers not delegated to the Federal 
Government are reserved to the States. With 
the reserved power belonging to a State the 
Federal Government has no right to inter- 
meddle. In these regards a State that has re- 
mained loyal and forfeited none of her fran- 
chises may claim immunity from interference, 
and if her rights are invaded may politely tell 
the parent Government to attend to her own 



business; people sometimes get rich by it. It 
is not so with the Territories. Congress has 
legislated and may legislate for them, or may 
grant legislative powers to the people, in which 
ease their legislation may immediately go into 
effect, or may be made to depend for its va- 
lidity upon the consent and sanction of Con- 
gress. Congress has frequently annulled the 
acts of Territorial Assemblies. Congress has 
frequently legislated and may legislate directly 
for a Territory without the intervention of any 
Territorial Assembly at all. 

Congress has almost uniformly specified the 
conditions upon which a Territory might become 
a State and be admitted into the Union. Con- 
gress has always taken upon itself the privilege 
to scan closely the constitution of a State ap- 
plying for admission, to determine whether its 
provisions were republican, to the end if they 
were found not to be the State might be re- 
jected. The Governor, secretary of state, 
judges, and many of the officers of a Territory 
are appointed by the President; but he has 
no such power in a State. It is easy to see that 
the powers of the President and of Congress 
are almost unlimited in a Territory up to the 
time when it becomes a State of the. Union, 
and that tiien they are confined within very 
narrow bounds. If it is desirable tliat Con- 
gress or the President should exercise author- 
ity, impose terms, annex conditions, or take 
jurisdiction, it Is as important that it should be 
done while it constitutionally may be done, as 
to strike when the iron is hot or to make hay 
while the sun shines. He who fails to control 
his child when he legally may will not be apt 
to control him when he legally may not. lie 
who parts with his property without taking se- 
curity at the time he may demand it, will not 
be likely to get security after the property has 
passed beyond his reach and the purchaser 
become insolvent. To wait till a State is 
admitted before demanding guarantees, that 
she may set us at defiance, is worse folly than 
locking the stable after the horse is gone, or 
sending for the doctor after the patient is dead. 
But it is said that the rebel States are not Ter- 
ritories. Well, they may not be, but do they 
not bear a nearer resemblance to a Territory 
than to a State of the Union? Wo shall see in 
the sequel, when the manner in which our Presi- 
dent has dealt with them is brought up in mar- 
tial array. 

In this connection it will be borne in mind 
that our President is a Democrat, a strict con- 
structionist, a State-rigiits man in the just and 
reasonable interpretation of that term, and 
would be guilty ot no usurpation of power. The 
law- making power is the highest and most sacred 
attribute of a State. A State that cannot make 
and unmake its own laws within constitutional 
limits without the interterence of outsiders is 
no State at all. A law of one of the Stat(>s of 
the Union not in contlietwith the Constitution 
can only be annulled or repealed by the power 
that made it, and President Johnson would 
sooner cut off his right arm than to issue a 
proclamation declaring Indiana or Pennsyb-a- 



6 



nia to be in a state of dissolution, without con- 
stitution or laws, and commanding the people 
to meet in convention, make a new constitution, 
and reinaugurate civil govornnent. "'That's 
his style" of giving the rebel States a bit of his 
mind, and letting them know his opinion and 
telling them what he wants them to do. Look 
at his North Carolina proclamation, wherein he 
tells the people they are deprived of all civil 
government, and goes on and intimates to them 
what to do. It is as the gentleman from Ohio 
[Mr. Shkllabakger] said, a carefully prepared 
state paper, issued under the attest of the Sec- 
retary of State, and the language of which has 
been seven times repeated in tiiat many differ- 
ent proclamations, as applied to that many dif- 
ferent States. 

I will not read the body of these proclama- 
tions, but this is the preamble: 

" Whereas the rebellion which has been wased by 
a portion of the people of the United States ajjuinst 
tlie properly constituted authorities of the Govern- 
ment thereof, in the most violent and revolting form, 
butwho.se organized and armed forces havenowbccn 
almost entirely overcome, has, in its revolutionary 
progress, deprived the people of the State of North 
Carolina of all civil goverumont." 

Is this the stuff the Union is made of? States 
deprived of all civil government ! States with- 
out government! I thought a State, to be in 
the Union must not only have a government, 
but a republican government, at that. That is 
my reading of the Constitution. Have I read 
it to so little purpose as to be mi.staken? Is 
not the Federal Union bound to guaranty to 
all the States a republican government? If so, 
how can a State without any kind of govern- 
ment be a part of the Federal Union? It is a 
solecism I am ashamed to combat in the hear- 
ing of reasoning men. 

Under the Constitution, the States of the 
Union, elect their own Governors. There is 
no such thing in that in.strument as a provis- 
ional governor ; the tf-rmcannotbe found, much 
less the power. Still I am not doubling the 
war power in a revolted State. But would not 
a President have a happy time in appointing a 
Governor for Pennsylvania or Indiana? And 
why may he not appoint a Governor for In- 
diana as well as for South Carolina or Mis- 
sissippi? Because the Constitution is in force 
in the former, and has been overthrown in the 
hitler; the former is a State of tlie Union, 
the latter disorganized comnumities within the 
territorial limits of the United States. The 
powers that approjiriately belong to a State of 
the Union ure no boon ; they are absolute 
rights, subject only to forfeiture for crime. 
Within, the powers that pertain to States of 
the Union, they legislate according to their 
own will and pleasure. 

Th(! history of our Government from its 
foundation ulfurds not a single instance of out- 
■ide dictation. Jt is sacred and liallowed 
eruund, subject to no profanatinn from the 
Pro-.idenlduwn to the humblest citizen. There 
n«'Ver*wa« a moment when the people would 
not have regarded Fuch a thing, if sul)mitfcd 
to, an the deatlfknell of liberty. If ottomptod 



to-day a storm of indignation would sweep 
the land before which no mortal man could 
stand. And yet our God-fearing, law-abiding, 
and power-distrusting President quietly goes 
down, so to speak, into Dixie, and says to this 
gallant and noble race of men, these lords of 
creation, who bow the knee to nonq, but God, 
and whose motto he knows to be, death before 
di.shonor, that they have by the war been de- 
prived of all civil government; that their laws 
and constitutions have all been overthrown, 
are null and void and of no effect, and that 
they have no government. He tells the Gov- 
ernors elected by the people to stand aside, 
that a Governor cannot live longer than the 
government, and he hurls them aside as uncere- 
moniously as a boy slings a hen from her nest 
that attempts to sit without eggs, and without 
half as much resistance. And he appoints what 
have been called, appropriately enough, provis- 
ional governors, and having thus dispo.sed of 
their Governors and appointed his own, in- 
structs them to disregard all existing State laws 
and constitutions and to begin de novo, call 
conventions and make new ones ; reconstruct 
from the ground up. 

Nay, I am proud to say that he does not stop 
at that, that he does not hesitate to tell them 
in unmistakable language what laws and or- 
dinances it would be agreeable to him if they 
would adopt ; it would increase their chances of 
being admitted into Congress, and of being per- 
mitted to take their places in the Government 
of the country. The very recital of the condi- 
tions-precedent by him at various times laid 
down — and he never laid down one that was 
not right in the sight of God and man — gladdens 
the heart, and is enough to make an honest 
man, a patriot, fatten on the short ribs, though 
they would in the palmy d.nys of the chivalry of 
the land have evolced a tempest. ''They must 
repeal their ordinances of secession ; they must 
repudiate the confederate debt ; they must adopt 
a consilitulion of freedom and ratify the con- 
stitutional amendment abolishing slavery : the)' 
must secure the freedom of the slave by just 
laws, permit him to testify as a witness, and when 
wronged or doing wrong to sue and he sued.'* 
And when all this and perhaps more tlijit I do 
not recollect is done, they then mjiy stand some 
chance of getting into the Union. Far be it 
from mo to complain of this dictation, as the 
Democrats used to style it.« I think it was all 
right. If there is any comjilaint to lie made 
against the President it is that he did not go 
quite far enough ; but God bless him for what 
he did do, and lead him onward in the pathway 
of wisdom and justice. Let us not be acrimo- 
nious or speak as though we had slaked our 
thirst at the fountains of bitterness. He has 
been faithful in the past, and he will not, I feel 
sure, be faithless now. 

In this way the President has accompli.shed 
much that nniy be happily consummated by Con- 
gress ; bufidisgui-'c ita.syou may, itwas because 
these ."states iiad not the control of their own 
affairs that lie has been enabled to accomplish 
any of these things. But for this he would 



r 



\ 



have had no propelling power. They would 
have snapped their fingers in liis teeth and 
laughed him to scorn. As it is, they have sub- 
mitted to the drawing of eye-teeth, hut have 
Btill been unable to stifle the agonized groans. 
The good we have already accomplLshea could 
not have been attained, would have been utterly 
beyond our reach, had these States before that 
time been admitted back into the Union in such 
way as to stand as if they had never rebelled. 
All the world knows that in that case they would 
have made no concessions. Our strength and 
their weakness lay in the fact that they had for- 
feited their rights as members of the Union, 
and that that forfeiture had not yet been re- 
mitted. But for that we would have been scorn- 
fully told that they had no favors to ask at our 
hands. We are indel:)ted to this "forfeiture," 
hanging over them as a rod of terror, for every 
inch of ground we have gained, and I would 
still keep them out awhile in the belief that 
they may possibly be stimulated to do right by 
the hope of thereby getting in. Much good has 
been accomplished, but as I think much that is 
desirable 3'et remains unaccomplished, I for one 
■ am not willing yet to let up. It would be but to 
slumber in the lap of Delilah to wake up shorn 
of our strength, and to find ourselves bound 
hand and foot and in the hands of the Philis- 
tines. 

If these States were back in the Union, or 
under no disabilities, how could we put them 
upon terms? Is it within the province of Con- 
gress or the Executive to search the legislation 
of the loyal States, and if anything shall be 
found that is wrong, not fit to be there, to coerce 
its repeal? What manner of coercion could be 
resorted to ? Who is wise enough to tell how 
the thing could bo accomplished? We all know 
that it could not be accomplished, and that any 
such attempt would be justly regarded as an 
act of usurpation. Why? Because these States 
are in the Union. They have incurred no for- 
feitures; they are under no disabilities; they 
are in no sense in a territorial condition ; and 
within their appropriate sphere they are wholly 
independent of Congress and the Executive. 
Is it to be wondered that the rebel States want 
to place themselves in a condition wherein they 
will be equally independent of control, and in 
the mean time to make as few concessions as 
possible, so that when reinstated and in a con- 
dition to defy the Government they will not 
find that they are bereft of power? And is it 
to be wondered that those who know what it 
has cost to put down this rebellion demur and 
think that this thing should not be liastily done ; 
that the world was not made in a day ; that there 
is luck in leisure, and that we .should plod our 
way carefully, hasten slowly, and know of a 
truth before any rebel State"^is rebaptized into 
the Union that the s(!eds of treason have been 
fully eradicated, and that she has given all rea- 
sonable' and necessary guarantees for her future 
good behavior? 

iSomo gentlemen seem to be anxious to hear 
within this Hall the crack of the plantation whip 
and to have a manifestation of plantation man- 



ners as in days of other years; and as sure as God 
lives they will be abundantly gratified if the policy 
of letting in the rebel States without guarantees 
shall prevail. I am opposed to it. It will prove 
unwise, ruinous, ana disastrous ; and I stand 
here to raise my voice against it. What we may 
do cannot be undone ; let us not, therefore, be 
guilty of the folly of him who marries in a hurry 
and repents at leisure. A mistake in the mat- 
ter is iatal ; let, therefore, what we have suf- 
fered in the past illuminate our pathway in the 
present. I entertain no feeling of revenge 
against this deluded people. I would exact 
nothing with a mere view to humiliation. I would 
do nothing that is merely vexatious. I would 
exact no condition-precedent that I did not 
regard vital to the full fruition of our victory 
and the future safety of the Union. Vengeance 
belongs not to man. In the hands of Him to 
whom alone it belongs let it be left. 

Related to these questions and connected 
with these inquiries is another, whether a person 
may renounce and abjure his citizenship, though 
it may not be in the power of a State to "'go 
out." Men are now knocking at the doors of 
Congress for admission as members of this 
body who not only renounced and abjured all 
allegiance and fidelity to the Government of 
the United States, but who took an oath of al- 
legiance to a hostile power and united with that 
hostile government to overthrow the Union, 
and whose hands are still crimson and whose 
garments are .still soaking and reeking with the 
blood shed in the wicked attempt, and we are 
told that Congress is actingbadly and violating 
the Constitution in keeping them out, and telling 
th^ to wait yet a little while. Of course these 
remarks do not apply to all who now demand 
admission. I am happy to say that Tennessee 
has sent a different class of men, and it may be 
that there is here and there on© from some 
other State who comes here with clean hands. 
I am for admitting Tennessee on reasonable 
terms of compliance, and shall be for admitting 
other States from time to time who can come 
with as equitable a claim as Tennessee, and 
which, if they do not come up to the full stand- 
ard at the time of applying, will submit to rea- 
sonable terms. I am for letting every tub stand 
on its own bottom, every State on its own mer- 
its, and do not hold to the belief at all that the 
admission of a State that comes with just claims 
is any concession to a State still remaining 
contumacious. The States come in separately ; 
they bade us good- by separately and must come 
back separately. I am not only for discrimi- 
nating between the States, but between the men 
who come here for admission. 

If a State is simple enough to send a man 
here who cannot take the iron-clad oath that 
you and I and all of us had to take, Mr. Speaker, 
he shall not come in by my vote, no matter 
what State he comes from. The Tennessee 
members can, I am informed, take that oath. 
It is my happiness to be personally acquainted 
with three of them, and to know that to An- 
drew .lohnson and to such as them— to their 
lasting honor be it .spoken— are we indebted for 



8 



■what we find commendable in the State of 
Tennessee. Steadfast and true they and he 
stood by the Union in its darkest hour. These 
men took me by the hand and stood by me 
when I marched into Tennessee, when I had 
command of their capital, and I am glad that 
Tennessee stands in such an attitude that I can 
now take them by the hand. 

How diffevent the claim of those who so 
recently renounced and abjured all allegiance 
to the Union. The Constitution of the United 
States declares that no person shall be a Rep- 
resentative wlio has not been seven years, and 
no person a Senator who has not been nine 
years, a citizen of the United States. These 
words do not mean at some time in their lives 
a citizen of the United States for the length of 
time indicated, but they mean a citizen of the 
United States for that length of time immedi- 
ately preceding and up to the time the seat is 
claiinf'd. What could mortal man do to re- 
nounce his citizenship that these men have not 
done? In what way could they incur that for- 
feiture if the way adopted is inadequate? ^ye 
are bringing men into our court-houses daily 
and permitting them by oath to renounce alle- 
giance to the Government wherein they were 
born. Can allegiance be renounced, or is this 
all mockery? 

And when we admit these foreigners to the 
rights of citizenship, on taking the oath of alle- 
giance to us and renouncing it as to all other 
potentates and Powers, ana especially the po- 
tentate and Power that claimed his allegiance, 
we do not institute any inquiry whether the 
particular Government renounced was legiti- 
mate or illegitimate — a Government in Uw or 
only a Government in fact — before accepting 
the oath and openin<» our doors, but we take 
the more sensible view, that if the applicant 
for the rights of citizenship has rendered trib- 
ute to and thought himself a citizen of another 
Government, de jure or de facto, that is enough 
to justify us in requiring the oath, and as little 
Bccurily as any Government, no matter how 
liheral. ought to demand. We have been pur- 
suing this policy for seventy or eighty years. 
It is rather late in the day to say now that a 
citizen cannot expatriate himself. If lie cannot 
we have been plundering otlier nations of their 
Bubjecfuin a remorseless manner duritig all ibis 
time, and have a mountain of guilt upon our 
shoulders. 

The reimon of a law is its life-blood, ns well 
as ft clue to its inteqiretation. Why wen' tlie 
clauses to whicli I have referred inserted in tiio 
Constitution? Was it that foreigji, unfriendly, 
and huslile elements miy:lit In; ke|)t out of our 
legislative halls, and the lawmaking busimss 
confined to frienils? Was it that we i>reterred 
the genuine to the spurious iinti bogu.s? Was 
that tin; object in renuiring tlie seven and the 
nine-year citizenship? Who can see any other? 
And are wo not violating the R])irit, intent, and 



meaning of these clauses by admitting those 
who have so lately given every evidence of the 
most deadly hostility and undying hate? 

We are taught that some who persecuted the 
Christians, stoned the prophets, and drank the 
blood of the saints, afterward became flaming 
evangelists : but Ave have no such miraculous 
conversions nowadays, and the atoning grace of 
the blessed Redeemer furnishes the only ex- 
ception to the general rule, that we may judge 
what a man is by what he recently was ; and if 
so, what signifies the oath as to what these 
men will do or will not do in the future? Do 
we turn tran.sgressorsloose uponthecommunity 
upon oaths for the future, or do we punish thein 
for the past ? Our fathers framed these clauses 
jirescribing the length of citizenship, to give 
Congress the right to look to the antecedents 
of an applicant as to citizenship, because they 
believed that the best test of friendship ; not that 
it was by any means infallible, but the best 
general rule that could be adopted to secure 
the purity of the body and the safety of the 
Commonwealth. It was for that reason that 
time was made as of the essence of the con- 
tract, as the lawyers would phrase it. Seven 
years a citizen at any time will not till the bill, 
will not come up to the requirements of the 
Constitution. It must be immediately preced- 
ing and up to the time when admission is de- 
manded. If he is not at that time a citizen, 
and been such continuously without a moment's 
intermission, he is but an intruder. He who 
for an instant ceases to be a citizen is as if he 
never had been a citizen. He is again at the 
starting point. All will know, of course, that 
the Constitution in using the term citizen uses 
it in its legal meaning, and not as synonymous 
with inhabitant or resident. He who becomes 
a citizen and lives seven years thereafter in the 
United States, then goes to another Govern- 
ment, and whether a Government in law or 
only in fact is immaterial, and there on oath 
renounces his allegiance to us and swears 
fealty to his new sovereign, is not upon after- 
ward returning to the United States a citizen 
thereof, nor eligible to a seat in Congress, 
though he has, in point of fact, at some time 
in his life been for seven years a citizen of the 
United States. And yet everybody knows that 
it woulil lie safer to take him iu fo iiistuiili than 
a bloody-handed traitor. Now, if I am riglit, 
how long hiive these candidates fvom South 
Caroliinv, ft»r instance, been citizens of the Uni- 
ted States? Seven years? Nay, hardly that 
many weeks. And as all the clauses in the Con- 
stitution are to me alike sacred until amended 
or repealed, I must say to these States that 
before they can git into Congress by my consent 
tliey must not only as iStafes come up to all 
reasonable re([uirements, but must send raim 
here wlio are loyal, can tak(> the iron-clad oath, 
and on the score of citizenship come up to the 
constitutional standard. I am done. 



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